100% agree that cutting back on bait to create competition is a bad idea. I’ve always said that once the magic blue barrel giveth no more they’ll go looking for a new one.
Today is opening day for spring bear. Had baits out for over 3 weeks and no hits. Heading out this afternoon to check them all fingers crossed for some hits lol. Great video as always 🤘🏻
Hey with bear season around the corner, a video of the types of barrels you use, size of holes in them for each type of bait, and just the basics of using barrels verse no barrels for bear would be a great video for this time of the year! would love to see more content!
That's a good idea. I do need to update some things with barrels as I have learned a lot more in the past few years since we have been able to use barrels here in Minnesota. Here's what I have done so far: th-cam.com/video/FodK_dhuQjs/w-d-xo.html
I have brought in all sorts of game meat into my household over the years, and the consensus of myself and my family is that is is a favorite. It makes the best sausages (fall bears make better sausage than anything else in my opinion whether game or domesticated). Anyway very good point about folks with bad experiences with bear meat likely eating a bear that was not handled properly after kill
I sure enjoyed this video and the other videos I watched on bear baiting. I agree with everything you have said. One of my biggest challenges is dealing with wolves on our baits and would like to see something on the best ways of dealing with them. They often ruin a specific hunt and run bears off of a bait sometimes forever. My current area has a lot of wolves throughout the bear management unit. I will cover the bait with logs and rocks in a effort to keep the wolves out but when a bear opens the bait the wolves often follow. It can be frustrating.
I'll probably someday do a video on how to deal with wolves, but at this point I don't feel like I have as many answers as I still have questions. I'm learning as I go. Best solution I know so far is to avoid bait that attracts wolves, which is actually harder to do than it seems.
I enjoyed your video and agree with the points you made. Baiting is hard work but well worth it when that big boy comes slinking in, they can be so crafty! I have past up calf moose meat on the bbq for bear meat, some of the best you can find!
I extended the trail we always see bear scat on at camp. We play radio at night while camping. Still have kids stepping in bear scat. Bears like trail cams. I attach them firmly. I had a bear or fisher take trail came and leave it in the swamp. I had fishers eating dead deer by my bait pile one day. Not a stump, not a bear, but a fisher family.
I am in agreement with everything you brought up "but" I think you should have emphasised more on the importance of getting that bear cooled off. Just like Antelope if you don't get it skinned (on ice) as soon as possible you are at the risk of bad meat. (6th generation Montana meat eater and avid hunter). Thank you for you truthful input.
Thanks for the video! I live in Vermont and biting is not allowed. I am looking for tips on hunting bears on the ground without baiting or portable ground blinds.. I need to use natural blinds and concealment. Tree stands are always a job to set up and move. I am 73 years old and prefer not to fall from a tree stand if I can avoid it. I have called bears several times using predator calls. I had a rifle with me when ever I have done that. I want to sue a bow but it might be a bad idea. Any tips or a video on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Great question. It's tough in the forest without baiting, but if you can find food sources it's possible. Old orchards, plum thickets, oak groves, etc. Then it's a waiting game.
After 16yrs of bear hunting I found this all to be true. With one exception though. In the explanation about meat handling, I'd like to add not all bears have a thick layer of fat. The 'world class' as some operations call them are fat because they have had a steady diet of cakes and sugar the whole time they're out of the den, places with cornfields have some fat bears too. But young bears or some bears that are fed lower fat options in remote areas can be pretty lean. Other than that, spot on from what I've witnessed.
Shot my 1st black bear last fall in an orchard and it is the best eating big game animal I have had. Very old boar with teeth worn way down. We will be targeting bears a lot more from now on. Love your videos, keep them coming
Hello sor .just found your channel! Your footage and your knowledge is great .im looking into hunting no quota in Minnesota next fall . I have bear hunted elsewhere before and found a love for it . I wonder if youd be willing to share any information about hunting in your state .location .bait setting . Stand placement anything helps this is the first time im baiting my own sets so any info would be great
There are videos on this channel explaining all of those things. Spend some time watching them it will answer all your questions. Also my book and DVD are excellent resources.
I've been bear baiting for seven years. These points are spot on. My wife gets better at cooking bear meat every year. An important thing is that bear should not be butchered the way deer is butchered. Trim ALL of the fat. The only time I get bad bear steaks is when the butcher leaves fat on the meat.
I enjoy bear roasts more than deer roasts. I treat them the same, I hate venison fat, it all comes off steaks and roasts. If I get one gamey bite, I’m done . But that doesn’t happen when my wife or I cook. Get it cold quick, trim it right. Season it and cook with onions which cuts any strong taste right out of oily fish like white bass or venison ect
say you had a good bait site picked but you can hear trucks on a highway in the distance. how would this effect the activity? positive with the chance of roadkill or negitive or nill effect
In most cases I don't think it would have much affect. If the bears are accustomed to the noise and activity, they will still use the area but of course they are unlikely to cross a busy road in their approach to the bait. The roadkill issue would be a nonfactor.
When a bear finds a bait station, will it bed close to it or do they already have a bedding area and then walk to the bait? If a bear only comes in after shoot hours, does that mean that they are bedded further away? I'm in the U.P. of Michigan and we don't have a whole lot of oaks along the south shore of Lake Superior.
Yes that can be true. Bears need a lot of water, especially if the weather is hot so they will bed nearby if there is water to drink and cool off in. That's one of the keys to getting them in during daylight, locate your bait sites near water so they do not have to travel far when they get up on the late afternoon/evening. There are videos on my channel talking about this.
Half my bears are nocturnal especially the big ones they have the game figured out and hope they will make a mistake eventually. Last year I got a decent one following a sow in late season.
That's pretty typical, especially in areas where bears have experienced some hunting pressure. If you work hard at creating a bait site environment where the bears feel safe and comfortable, minimize human intrusion and avoid any other negative contact, even the mature bears will often come in a little earlier if they feel safe. It's the only thing that has worked for me.
How about if you can only bait 10 gal per day. Do you bait every single day putting more human scent at the bait to ensure he always gets something to eat?
Hey, I'm going to go on my first bear hunt in Ontario. It's probably going to be high teens into 20s. If I can get the bear into a freezer in no less than 5 hours, is that enough time? Cheers.
Yes that's about the best you can expect. If you have to haul it quite a ways I would get the guts out of it right away so it can start cooling. Also I would certainly avoid leaving one overnight if possible. Make a good shot so you can recover right away! Good luck!
@BowhuntingRoad Thanks! I plan to immediately remove the guts, hoist into a tree, and then skin it. I have a follow up, you mentioned the quantity of bait. Something like 5 kgs every 24 hours would work? It's licoric molasses corn and grain.
I live in Wi. Been hunting bear quite a few years and have been stifled by the fact that a few bears coming from july to sept. and 1 week before season opens they quit coming in because of other food availability at that time..If Wi. would open the season earlier.. the success rate would be greater--any thoughts??
Not a lot you can do when the acorns drop other than keep good bait in front of them, especially natural stuff like trail mix and granola. They become more irregular with a lot of natural food around, but it can be done.
I never wanted to hunt bears over bait. Manly because most of the times I seen I seen it done downwind of some rotting beaver carcasses or something but I seen gummy bears and trail mix so I might be down. Lol
The only bear I've shot was a 17yr old sow with a huge head and taken in late September in the Cascade mountains of Washington State back in late 1980s and was some of the BEST meat I've ever eaten!!!
I have tried the restricting the bait to get bears coming during the day. In my opinion its not worth it. It did get some daylight bears, but it wasn't a positive experience, most of and all the quality bears left. A couple yearling type bears stuck around and ate during the day. So that may be how the rumor started. "Well it worked i shot a bear because of that trick." But in reality I think it would be in spite of that trick.
I agree 100% with everything you said! I'd rather take a bear to my freezer than a deer any day! All my kids and my wife absolutely love bear meat! Actually, the only way to get my daughter to eat any kind of red meat, we have to tell her it's bear meat! 😂
A Pennsylvania hunter here. No baiting is allowed in this State for bear hunting. We will harvest around 4000 bears every year. Why someone has to bait for bears to get one I will never understand. Have you ever shot a bear not using bait? Try that and I will call you a good hunter or a lucky one. If they allowed baiting here it would be used to. What are the rules for baiting bear? What types of food, how much, how often? Must the baits be removed after the season? How long before the start of the season can you bait? How far from the bait can you hunt?
Don't say you will never understand, just do a little research and you can easily understand why all states and provinces in the northern boreal forest use baiting as the primary means of bear management. Your just ignorant and a little education can change that.
@@BowhuntingRoad I have never baited deer or bear and have shot many deer with bow, rifle, flintlock and shotgun. I have seen a fair amount of bears in the woods. I Only ever bear hunted twice and was only 75 yards from getting one. The reason I don't understand is because I have never baited. It's just simply against the law here and many bear and deer are shot in this State every year. Why in your State is it needed?
You never will understand if you don't open your mind a little bit and consider the different situation. Pennsylvania is not like Maine, or New Hampshire, or Minnesota. A record year in New Hampshire is 1,000 bears. Maine and New Hampshire are heavily forested and offer few opportunities for visually sighting bears across open areas. This is why bear baiting is less common in the western states as well. If they didn't allow baiting in these states, the harvest would be ridiculously low. Even with baiting, the success rate is typically below 30%. Drop the "good hunter" line - bear baiters do not need your personal validation.
Good question. If you miss with a bow, the bear may even know what the noise was and may come back soon or forget about it after a short time. Also depends on if the bear sees the shooter, that would make it a lot worse. Shooting at one with a gun might keep the bear away for good or at least might go completely nocturnal.
Overall this is a very good video. Respectfully, however, I disagree that bear baiting is hard or sporting. I live in Alaska and have taken over 50 bears; approximately 1/3 of those have been over bait that I backpack into mountain canyons in Central Alaska. While I would agree that it's work and requires constant attention, compared to the backpack hunts I've done in the mountains for bears, baiting is rather easy. Not all hunting has to be justified as sporting or challenging; some hunts (and methods) exist purely for their conservation value as in managing predator vs prey relationships. Bear baiting falls into that category. And you're right it is a lot of fun. But calling it hard work and sporting is a stretch.
Well I haven't hunted Alaska so I can't speak to that and I suspect since you feel it is easy, then you haven't hunted some of the heavily pressured states in the US, where getting a mature black bear to come to a bait site during legal shooting hours is one of the toughest challenges there is in hunting.
....then taking a mature bear on a bait is not that difficult....even by children and otherwise inexperienced hunters. Baiting is a great conservation tool and is justified and ethical, and as I stated, I too hunt over bait. I just think it's unnecessary and a mistake to try and convince others that it's hard work or sporting. In fact, compared to all other hunts I do, baiting bears (all DIY public land) are by far the least difficult.
@@richsheeper1963 You should come to Minnesota and give it a try. Success rates run about 30% and I have never known a child or youth to take a bear over bait by themselves. Only a tiny fraction of the bears shot in the lower 48 are mature males, it's just too difficult. Sure, it's not that hard to shoot a yearling, which makes up the majority of the harvest, other than the manual labor involved. Yet, as I said, 70% of hunters work their tails off and try to do everything right, yet come to the end of the season without getting a shot at ANY bear.
I really like the straight up honesty in your videos. Thank you for another informative video.
Appreciate it. .
100% agree that cutting back on bait to create competition is a bad idea. I’ve always said that once the magic blue barrel giveth no more they’ll go looking for a new one.
Thanks for posting, I just get pumped up every time I listen to you on bear hunting.
Maybe the videos of all the big bears help?
Bernie - Great video, I especially like that you brought up a bears eyesight.
Thanks for watching!
Today is opening day for spring bear. Had baits out for over 3 weeks and no hits. Heading out this afternoon to check them all fingers crossed for some hits lol. Great video as always 🤘🏻
Legit video!! No BS and straight to the point....no fakin....always enjoy your content....season starts here In Arkansas n 3 weeks!!
I agree with all your points. Most of what I've learned in 25 years of bear hunting has come through the school of hard knocks.
Hey with bear season around the corner, a video of the types of barrels you use, size of holes in them for each type of bait, and just the basics of using barrels verse no barrels for bear would be a great video for this time of the year! would love to see more content!
That's a good idea. I do need to update some things with barrels as I have learned a lot more in the past few years since we have been able to use barrels here in Minnesota. Here's what I have done so far: th-cam.com/video/FodK_dhuQjs/w-d-xo.html
@@BowhuntingRoad I can only watch the double barrel set so many times lol. I'm hunting east of mille lacs and got my tag for this year.
I have brought in all sorts of game meat into my household over the years, and the consensus of myself and my family is that is is a favorite. It makes the best sausages (fall bears make better sausage than anything else in my opinion whether game or domesticated).
Anyway very good point about folks with bad experiences with bear meat likely eating a bear that was not handled properly after kill
I sure enjoyed this video and the other videos I watched on bear baiting. I agree with everything you have said. One of my biggest challenges is dealing with wolves on our baits
and would like to see something on the best ways of dealing with them. They often ruin a specific hunt and run bears off of a bait sometimes forever. My current area has a lot of wolves throughout the bear management unit. I will cover the bait with logs and rocks in a effort to keep the wolves out but when a bear opens the bait the wolves often follow. It can be frustrating.
I'll probably someday do a video on how to deal with wolves, but at this point I don't feel like I have as many answers as I still have questions. I'm learning as I go. Best solution I know so far is to avoid bait that attracts wolves, which is actually harder to do than it seems.
Bang on. Good video, makes sense which is kind of rare sometimes.
I enjoyed your video and agree with the points you made. Baiting is hard work but well worth it when that big boy comes slinking in, they can be so crafty! I have past up calf moose meat on the bbq for bear meat, some of the best you can find!
Well said!
This year will be my first bear hunt, it will be in Northeastern Lower Michigan. Thanks very much.
Good luck!
I really enjoy the knowledge of Bears that you share with me. Thanx for the vids!!!
You bet!
I agree natural food sources make the best spots to bait bear at. Because they were all ready coming there.
I extended the trail we always see bear scat on at camp. We play radio at night while camping. Still have kids stepping in bear scat. Bears like trail cams. I attach them firmly. I had a bear or fisher take trail came and leave it in the swamp. I had fishers eating dead deer by my bait pile one day. Not a stump, not a bear, but a fisher family.
All the things u have said in this video is bang on money thanks for all the tips and I enjoy all ur videos thanks once again
Really appreciate your videos. Thanks for all the info. 1st time bear Hunter.
Glad to help
Got my first bear 3yrs. ago. Now my favorite wild game meat.
I am in agreement with everything you brought up "but" I think you should have emphasised more on the importance of getting that bear cooled off. Just like Antelope if you don't get it skinned (on ice) as soon as possible you are at the risk of bad meat. (6th generation Montana meat eater and avid hunter). Thank you for you truthful input.
That's good advice and I cover it in great detail in other videos.
Best bear channel on the World Wide Web!!
One of the best bear videos I have seen
awesome video enjoyed it very much, keep them coming 👍
Thanks for the visit
Great point about the bear baiting. Excellent video, thanks for sharing.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for the video! I live in Vermont and biting is not allowed. I am looking for tips on hunting bears on the ground without baiting or portable ground blinds.. I need to use natural blinds and concealment. Tree stands are always a job to set up and move. I am 73 years old and prefer not to fall from a tree stand if I can avoid it. I have called bears several times using predator calls. I had a rifle with me when ever I have done that. I want to sue a bow but it might be a bad idea. Any tips or a video on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Great question. It's tough in the forest without baiting, but if you can find food sources it's possible. Old orchards, plum thickets, oak groves, etc. Then it's a waiting game.
After 16yrs of bear hunting I found this all to be true.
With one exception though. In the explanation about meat handling, I'd like to add not all bears have a thick layer of fat. The 'world class' as some operations call them are fat because they have had a steady diet of cakes and sugar the whole time they're out of the den, places with cornfields have some fat bears too. But young bears or some bears that are fed lower fat options in remote areas can be pretty lean.
Other than that, spot on from what I've witnessed.
Yes I have seen some that have little fat on them, but they are the exception, especially in the fall hunts.
Shot my 1st black bear last fall in an orchard and it is the best eating big game animal I have had. Very old boar with teeth worn way down. We will be targeting bears a lot more from now on. Love your videos, keep them coming
Is there any rule of thumb for the height of the bears back and the size of their track and their body weight?
Not really. Of course big bears have big feet and if they are heavy they sink into some kinds of ground more deeply.
Hello sor .just found your channel! Your footage and your knowledge is great .im looking into hunting no quota in Minnesota next fall . I have bear hunted elsewhere before and found a love for it . I wonder if youd be willing to share any information about hunting in your state .location .bait setting . Stand placement anything helps this is the first time im baiting my own sets so any info would be great
There are videos on this channel explaining all of those things. Spend some time watching them it will answer all your questions. Also my book and DVD are excellent resources.
I've been bear baiting for seven years. These points are spot on. My wife gets better at cooking bear meat every year. An important thing is that bear should not be butchered the way deer is butchered. Trim ALL of the fat. The only time I get bad bear steaks is when the butcher leaves fat on the meat.
I enjoy bear roasts more than deer roasts. I treat them the same, I hate venison fat, it all comes off steaks and roasts. If I get one gamey bite, I’m done . But that doesn’t happen when my wife or I cook. Get it cold quick, trim it right. Season it and cook with onions which cuts any strong taste right out of oily fish like white bass or venison ect
say you had a good bait site picked but you can hear trucks on a highway in the distance. how would this effect the activity?
positive with the chance of roadkill or negitive or nill effect
In most cases I don't think it would have much affect. If the bears are accustomed to the noise and activity, they will still use the area but of course they are unlikely to cross a busy road in their approach to the bait. The roadkill issue would be a nonfactor.
When a bear finds a bait station, will it bed close to it or do they already have a bedding area and then walk to the bait? If a bear only comes in after shoot hours, does that mean that they are bedded further away? I'm in the U.P. of Michigan and we don't have a whole lot of oaks along the south shore of Lake Superior.
Yes that can be true. Bears need a lot of water, especially if the weather is hot so they will bed nearby if there is water to drink and cool off in. That's one of the keys to getting them in during daylight, locate your bait sites near water so they do not have to travel far when they get up on the late afternoon/evening. There are videos on my channel talking about this.
Half my bears are nocturnal especially the big ones they have the game figured out and hope they will make a mistake eventually. Last year I got a decent one following a sow in late season.
That's pretty typical, especially in areas where bears have experienced some hunting pressure. If you work hard at creating a bait site environment where the bears feel safe and comfortable, minimize human intrusion and avoid any other negative contact, even the mature bears will often come in a little earlier if they feel safe. It's the only thing that has worked for me.
Are peaches a suitable bait addition for Black Bear ? We have a ton of them in the yard.
Might not be too bad, some kinds of fruit work well.
@@BowhuntingRoad well they will soaked in a mixture of honey and molasses for about 3 weeks too 😂
How about if you can only bait 10 gal per day. Do you bait every single day putting more human scent at the bait to ensure he always gets something to eat?
Yup, Wisconsin presents it's own problems with this restriction. I still say keep food in front of them, even if you have to bait more often.
Thanks for the tips.
Good points and video
I'm in up state ny so a bunch of this isn't even in my tool bag since we can't bait.
Will black bear shy away from bait sites that have frequent porcupine
Only while the porky is there at the bait. Bears will work around them.
Hey, I'm going to go on my first bear hunt in Ontario. It's probably going to be high teens into 20s. If I can get the bear into a freezer in no less than 5 hours, is that enough time?
Cheers.
Yes that's about the best you can expect. If you have to haul it quite a ways I would get the guts out of it right away so it can start cooling. Also I would certainly avoid leaving one overnight if possible. Make a good shot so you can recover right away! Good luck!
@BowhuntingRoad Thanks! I plan to immediately remove the guts, hoist into a tree, and then skin it.
I have a follow up, you mentioned the quantity of bait. Something like 5 kgs every 24 hours would work?
It's licoric molasses corn and grain.
@@MegaLitterbox Just don't let them run out.
I live in Wi. Been hunting bear quite a few years and have been stifled by the fact that a few bears coming from july to sept. and 1 week before season opens they quit coming in because of other food availability at that time..If Wi. would open the season earlier.. the success rate would be greater--any thoughts??
Not a lot you can do when the acorns drop other than keep good bait in front of them, especially natural stuff like trail mix and granola. They become more irregular with a lot of natural food around, but it can be done.
Great video! Thanks for the tips!
Glad it was helpful!
I agree you did a great job
My family has been doing the bait cutting for years and it always produces. Got a 500 pounder hitting the bait now.
Always.
@@BowhuntingRoad Yes u read that right... Every year, 300-450 pound bears on average.
excellent info ... take a peek at mine findings ... Bowhunting Bears 101 ... we mostly agree
I never wanted to hunt bears over bait. Manly because most of the times I seen I seen it done downwind of some rotting beaver carcasses or something but I seen gummy bears and trail mix so I might be down. Lol
Give it a try!
The only bear I've shot was a 17yr old sow with a huge head and taken in late September in the Cascade mountains of Washington State back in late 1980s and was some of the BEST meat I've ever eaten!!!
2 years hunting now and only few weeks left and still no bear
Get er dun!
I have tried the restricting the bait to get bears coming during the day. In my opinion its not worth it. It did get some daylight bears, but it wasn't a positive experience, most of and all the quality bears left. A couple yearling type bears stuck around and ate during the day. So that may be how the rumor started. "Well it worked i shot a bear because of that trick." But in reality I think it would be in spite of that trick.
I agree 100% with everything you said! I'd rather take a bear to my freezer than a deer any day! All my kids and my wife absolutely love bear meat! Actually, the only way to get my daughter to eat any kind of red meat, we have to tell her it's bear meat! 😂
A Pennsylvania hunter here. No baiting is allowed in this State for bear hunting. We will harvest around 4000 bears every year. Why someone has to bait for bears to get one I will never understand. Have you ever shot a bear not using bait? Try that and I will call you a good hunter or a lucky one. If they allowed baiting here it would be used to. What are the rules for baiting bear? What types of food, how much, how often? Must the baits be removed after the season? How long before the start of the season can you bait? How far from the bait can you hunt?
Ignorant comment.
Don't say you will never understand, just do a little research and you can easily understand why all states and provinces in the northern boreal forest use baiting as the primary means of bear management. Your just ignorant and a little education can change that.
@@BowhuntingRoad I have never baited deer or bear and have shot many deer with bow, rifle, flintlock and shotgun. I have seen a fair amount of bears in the woods. I Only ever bear hunted twice and was only 75 yards from getting one. The reason I don't understand is because I have never baited. It's just simply against the law here and many bear and deer are shot in this State every year. Why in your State is it needed?
@@toddhackley1241 This will help you understand better. th-cam.com/video/T7tFrBHhTdI/w-d-xo.html
You never will understand if you don't open your mind a little bit and consider the different situation. Pennsylvania is not like Maine, or New Hampshire, or Minnesota. A record year in New Hampshire is 1,000 bears. Maine and New Hampshire are heavily forested and offer few opportunities for visually sighting bears across open areas. This is why bear baiting is less common in the western states as well.
If they didn't allow baiting in these states, the harvest would be ridiculously low. Even with baiting, the success rate is typically below 30%. Drop the "good hunter" line - bear baiters do not need your personal validation.
Of course bears have excellent vision, they would not be roaming in the dark without being able to see well.
That's the tapetum lucidum I was referring to in the video on bear vision.
Well done
Sounds reasonable to me.
Will a bear come bask it you shot at it but missed it
Good question. If you miss with a bow, the bear may even know what the noise was and may come back soon or forget about it after a short time. Also depends on if the bear sees the shooter, that would make it a lot worse. Shooting at one with a gun might keep the bear away for good or at least might go completely nocturnal.
yep all true.....hunting bears over bait 30 years
Overall this is a very good video. Respectfully, however, I disagree that bear baiting is hard or sporting. I live in Alaska and have taken over 50 bears; approximately 1/3 of those have been over bait that I backpack into mountain canyons in Central Alaska. While I would agree that it's work and requires constant attention, compared to the backpack hunts I've done in the mountains for bears, baiting is rather easy. Not all hunting has to be justified as sporting or challenging; some hunts (and methods) exist purely for their conservation value as in managing predator vs prey relationships. Bear baiting falls into that category. And you're right it is a lot of fun. But calling it hard work and sporting is a stretch.
Well I haven't hunted Alaska so I can't speak to that and I suspect since you feel it is easy, then you haven't hunted some of the heavily pressured states in the US, where getting a mature black bear to come to a bait site during legal shooting hours is one of the toughest challenges there is in hunting.
If the B&C record books are any indicator
....then taking a mature bear on a bait is not that difficult....even by children and otherwise inexperienced hunters. Baiting is a great conservation tool and is justified and ethical, and as I stated, I too hunt over bait. I just think it's unnecessary and a mistake to try and convince others that it's hard work or sporting. In fact, compared to all other hunts I do, baiting bears (all DIY public land) are by far the least difficult.
@@richsheeper1963 You should come to Minnesota and give it a try. Success rates run about 30% and I have never known a child or youth to take a bear over bait by themselves. Only a tiny fraction of the bears shot in the lower 48 are mature males, it's just too difficult. Sure, it's not that hard to shoot a yearling, which makes up the majority of the harvest, other than the manual labor involved. Yet, as I said, 70% of hunters work their tails off and try to do everything right, yet come to the end of the season without getting a shot at ANY bear.